Founder of the Secret Society of Mathematicians 103
Anti-Globalism suggests an article at Science News on the passing of Henri Cartan, one of the founding members of a strange and influential group of French mathematicians in the twentieth century. "In the 1930s, a group of young French mathematicians led an uprising that revolutionized mathematics. France had lost most of a generation in the First World War, so the emerging hotshots in mathematics had few elders to look up to. And when these radicals did look up, they didn't like what they saw. The practice of mathematics at the time was dry, scattered and muddled, they believed, in need of reinvention and invigoration... Using the nom de plume Nicolas Bourbaki (after a dead Napoleonic general), they wrote a series of textbooks laying out mathematics the right way. Though the young mathematicians started out only intending to write a good textbook for analysis..., they ended up creating dozens of volumes which formed a manifesto for a new philosophy of mathematics. The last of the founders of Bourbaki, Henri Cartan, died August 13 at age 104... Two of his students won the Fields medal..., one won the Nobel Prize in physics and another won the economics Nobel."
Remove the stone of shame... (Score:5, Funny)
Attach the stone of triumph!
Thees Matematics... (Score:1, Funny)
secret? (Score:5, Funny)
"Secret society" is a bit over the top! I always had the impression it had the feeling more of a running joke; from the article:
Though it wasn't *just* a joke--they wrote a lot of very serious mathematics!
They really are radicals! (Score:5, Funny)
How does someone become a member of this finite group? Do they have to stand in the middle while the rest of them form a perfect square around them? I wonder if they have to hide their identity?
oh well, at least at the end there's pi!
Re:when things don't add up & everything's 'se (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, Anonymous Coward, how I love your posts. The complete disregard to logic, spelling and grammar appearing in every topic has become my warm security blanket. You are the nougat center of my candybar and I will henceforth use random caps keys while starting all sentences with a lowercase letter - or better an ampersand - as a show of the esteem I hold you in.
& sINCE yOU post this in every topic perhaps you might want to edit the oRIGINAL.
pS, I work for the gOVERNMENT and we are tracking you. yOU should quit doing that thing with anime porn or yOU"LL go blind.
Re:Their biggest achievement (Score:5, Funny)
They made Steve Guttenberg a star.
Who??
Re:Imagine their meetings! (Score:2, Funny)
The He-Man-Godel-Hating Club!
Re:gna:a (Score:2, Funny)
"From steadily fucking," eh? Well, sir -- I wish I had YOUR problems.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Secret Society (Score:4, Funny)
Re:They really are radicals! (Score:1, Funny)
The pi is a li
Re:They really are radicals! (Score:1, Funny)
The cake is a lie group.
Re:The group's works (Score:1, Funny)
The guy just died, so they're copyrighted for only another 70 years. See how well it works?
Re:secret? (Score:4, Funny)
Mwahahaha this plan is brilliant. Now if only I could get with a girl and spread my brood upon the world.
Re:They really are radicals! (Score:3, Funny)
You make sure you have an inverse and that you associate nicely with the other elements.
from Straight Dope (Score:5, Funny)
The following examples may help to clarify the difference between the new and old math.
1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of this price. What is his profit?
1970 (Traditional math): A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. What is his profit?
1975 (New Math): A logger exchanges a set L of lumber for a set M of money. The cardinality of set M is 100 and each element is worth $1.
(a) make 100 dots representing the elements of the set M
(b) The set C representing costs of production contains 20 fewer points than set M. Represent the set C as a subset of the set M.
(c) What is the cardinality of the set P of profits?
1990 (Dumbed-down math): A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Underline the number 20.
1997 (Whole Math): By cutting down a forest full of beautiful trees, a logger makes $20.
(a) What do you think of this way of making money?
(b) How did the forest birds and squirrels feel?
(c) Draw a picture of the forest as you'd like it to look.
Re:For anyone wondering what that refers to... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Imagine their meetings! (Score:1, Funny)
Imagine wanting to write it down but finding that the margin of the book you're using is way too small...
Besides, the solution for (and cause of) all the problems of the world is beer!
Re:Imagine their meetings! (Score:1, Funny)
The first rule of the He-Man-Godel-Hating Club is you do not talk about the He-Man-Godel-Hating Club!
Re:Imagine their meetings! (Score:2, Funny)
The first rule of clubs is that whenever anyone mentions any club you claim that its first two rules match those of the Fight Club!
Re:Thees Matematics... (Score:3, Funny)